President Party for Children held at Anlo Beach

Anlo Beach (W/R), March 4, GNA - About 400 basic schools children from Anlo Beach and its surrounding communities were on Wednesday feted at the President's Party for Children at Anlo Beach near Takoradi. The occasion was under the theme: "Children and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child at '20".

Speaking at the function, Ms Betty Bosomtwi-Sam, Deputy Western Regional Minister, said government and the people have demonstrated their commitments to the tenets of the Convention by domesticating laws and policies to be consistent with those of the CRC. She said although challenges such as inadequate human and material resources have impeded the achievements of some of the goals of the Convention, the importance of a national policy framework that addresses children issues was paramount. Ms Bosomtwi-Sam said government believes that the country's future was dependent on the existence of a well-educated and disciplined workforce. As a result she said government would spare no effort in motivating teachers through the provision of incentives and improvement in their remuneration.

She said in addition, government would equip schools throughout the country with teaching and learning materials as well as building classroom blocks at the basic level. Ms Bosomtwi-Sam said under the current policy, school enrolment is obligatory where every child of school going age was required to be in school.

She said maternal and child health had taken centre stage in the country's health programme where through the accelerated Child Health Programme and the High Impact Rapid Delivery Health Care Programme improvements in child health and maternal health care could be seen. Ms Bosomtwi-Sam said these programmes have now been extended to all regions.

She said priority was now being placed on child protection issues to eliminate worst forms of child labour, child trafficking, child abuse, commercial sex exploitation of children and "streetism". Ms Bosomtwi-Sam advised children to refrain from acts such as internet fraud, watching pornographic materials, and drug abuse that have the potential to rob them of their future successes.

Ms Emelia Arthur, Shama District Chief Executive, expressed concern about the mass failures of children in the area in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) saying the Assembly was doing everything possible to turn the situation around. She said out of the 17 districts in the region, Shama was sixteenth in the BECE "ladder" adding that about 572 teenage pregnancies were recorded in the district last year. Ms Arthur asked parents to be alive to their responsibilities and provide their wards with the necessities of life.